Important Questions (2)

September 8, 2009, 7:12 am by dc-agape.

Last week I ask some tough questions to one of my Christian commenters.  I had a reason for each of the questions.  You see, Christians worship a supreme being that is known for compassion, justice, and love.  The questions I ask should have included two more, but I thought I had covered all the important topics, so there will be nine total posts in this series, even though I have already made a second post on the first question.  I hope that this will not be the standard!  I will explain the reason for each of the questions in these posts.  The purpose of the questions was to determine if our commenter was True to the Christ-like qualities expected from Christians.

I continued to ask hard questions.  I introduced the cases of Terry Schivo and Dr. Jack Kevorkian.  My questions were related to the intervention of the US government to keep Mrs. Schivo alive even though the potassium imbalance had left her brain nearly completely dead.  I also used the case against Dr. Kevorkian (Dr. Death).  He helped terminally ill, suffering people to a peaceful death that would not arrive for weeks or even years.  I went further and asked how he personally responded to these results.

I should qualify the reason for this question.  I have witnessed all four of my grandparent’s death personally, my mother’s, and most of my father’s and mother’s cousins continued struggle with cancers and death. As a gay man I have personally survived the early ’90 significant plague of AIDS on my community.  Many of my personal friends and loved ones died of this horrible disease.  I see nothing compassionate in forcing a dying person to remain alive until the final pain-filled breath is taken while human-made machines and drugs attempt to keep the person alive for a little bit longer.  There is nothing ethical or compassionate about this type of torture.  Killing someone who has the chance that a cure is possible, or even a minimization of pain and suffering is an ethical problem, without doubt, but that was not the question.

To obtain an understanding of Christian “compassion”, it would seem that I must eliminate such concepts as the Buddhist teachings of compassion that is over 2,500 years old.  Taoism, a religion that is over 4,000 years old must also be eliminated.  I must also eliminate from my discussion that in Bronze-age France compassion was shown that is over 6,800 years old.  Or even older examples of compassion from Southern Italy in 10,000 BC.  Of course, since the world was created only in October of 4004 BC the last two don’t count, right?  Sorry Christians you do not have a monopoly on compassion!  But you certainly do seem to hoard it for your own families, thinking that all non-believers are uncompassionate.

My argument is simple in the case of terminally ill humans.  How would you feel if you could no longer communicate with the world around you?  Worse, what if your unconscious state of semi-vegetable like existence left you completely unresponsive to the world around you yet you had vivid nightmares in this state?  Since we cannot know what a person is feeling while in a permanent coma, should we use man-made machines and medicines to keep the person alive…just because we can?  Is it compassionate?  If nature has determined that it is time to let the person go…should we hold on for personal selfish reasons?  In fact, is keeping some one alive by modern medicine truly compassionate, or is there some other reason that the living does not want to let go of the dead?  Is it guilt?  Is it fear?  Is it proving that we can overcome death?  And why do Christians want their suffering family members to linger here on earth, when “Heaven” is waiting?  Should not death be a time of rejoicing in a Christian household?

A tougher question is euthanasia.  As with abortion, it is not an easy subject and does not have a clear line of demarcation.  It is true that people will give up hope long before the suffering or disease will end their life.  In many of these cases, the desire to live will return.  In these cases an early death is tragic and should be weighed with great consideration.  Psychological counseling should be extensive.  Family member’s wishes should be considered with great care.  But one thing that is overlooked is who will care for the person seeking death?  Will it be their family members, friends, or cold strangers?  How long will the family be willing to take care of the suicidal family member before they ship the person off to a cold sterile medical environment that only intensifies the suffering and desire to die?

But there is another side to euthanasia as well.  What about the terminally ill, those people who will not make it 24 hours, a week, or even a month?  But during that short period they will have to take extreme amounts of pain killers, toxic doses of chemotherapies, and continue to suffer with little or no hope of the pain going away?  Is that compassionate to make them suffer, just because modern science can extend their pain?  Is it compassionate to extend the families suffering at watching their loved one slowly die while living in pain, drugged to the max, barely able to recognize their own family members?  Is it compassionate to the survivors to make them wait to start the healing process after the death of a loved one?  The healing process must start, why should it be delayed just to keep one individual alive for a short period of time?

There are some reasons to not allow euthanasia.  But should these be left to particular religions to decide (by law)?  Or should trained medical staff (both physicians and psychologist) be the ones to make these recommendations?  There are cases of comatose patients waking after a short period of time.  It would seem that the body even needed the comatose state to heal properly.  The “plug” should not be pulled without a heavy dose of consideration, but compassion should be applied in the right form.  But compassion is not as an over-arching “keep them alive” for as long as possible in every case.

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